Trading in the FX market using mechanical trading strategies

From Beginner to Successful Trader : How Long Does it Take ?

It is not a secret that most people who begin to search for and study forex trading have the goal of becoming indepedent and successful traders in the long term. However, reality is different in the sense that most people who start their journey in forex trading don’t end up as successful traders but as frustrated and tired individuals who sacrificed an important amount of their savings trying to get a grip of forex trading. Is there a magic formula to success ? Is there a quicker or slower way to do things ? On today’s article I want to write about this very important question that almost all new traders ask : How long does it take to get from being a new trader to a successful one.

It is not easy to be a successful forex trader (or a trader in general), it requires patience, concentration, time, energy, intelligence and most importantly, it requires a lot of dedication and perseverance. Most people fall for the promises of quick riches and “easy trading” from many online gurus which – truth be told – are most of the time marketers who have not become successful traders themselves. New traders start their journey with high expectations of large profits in small amounts of time something that inevitably ends up with frustration and sometimes even denial as traders find out that trading is not an easy task after acquiring some experience.––But how long does it take for new traders to become successful ? Adding my personal experience to that of several experienced traders I know I can tell you : it depends. First of all, what do we consider success ? If success is having two consecutive years of trading in which any net profit is achieved, then – from what I know from others and experienced myself – it usually takes from 4 to 10 years of trading experience to achieve this goal. If enough capital is available, traders will usually also achieve living from trading within this time period.

What determines fast success or slow success ? Definitely I think that a good answer would be : your ability to learn. Traders who take longer to achieve profitability are more stubborn and less systematic when evaluating their trading performance than people who take shorter periods of time. Usually people who are methodical, have fixed periods of time for trading each day and analyze their trading – either done through manual or automated systems – in a very analytical way are those who can achieve success in the smaller time.

It is also true that this does not come without pain, effort and financial loss. Average profitable traders would have spent around 20K in wiped live accounts and their forex education before they can say “I made a net profit last year”. A large majority of the successful traders I know have also wiped their first live account clean during their first year of live trading experience. Those who haven’t had close guidance and personal trading from an already successful trader showing how important it is to actually have advice from someone who is truly successful around this field.

I can tell you that – for me – this process took nearly 6 years. A time in which I wiped several live accounts – learned from my mistakes – and kept on going into my journey towards profitable forex trading. Now I can tell you that it was worth it but several thousands of times more diffcult than what peolpe wanted me to believe in the beginning. I had to discover my trading personality, understand the markets (something which is always in progress !) and learn to control my weakneses, which were evident after I started to analyze trades done by myself or my automated trading systems.

So in the end, what determines your success here – in forex trading – is not that different from what determines your success in life. You need to be consistent, analytical and willing to learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others. If you would like to learn more about forex automated trading, the systems I use to trade and how you too can build your own likely long term profitable systems please consider buying my ebook on automated trading or joining Asirikuy to receive all ebook purchase benefits, weekly updates, check the live accounts I am running with several expert advisors and get in the road towards long term success in the forex market using automated trading systems. I hope you enjoyed the article !

One Response to “From Beginner to Successful Trader : How Long Does it Take ?”

the article is dated back 6 years from now and I’ve been studying Forex trading for almost a month and I can really see it is no child’s play. However. I would like to know if you’d recommend beginners to try fully automated trading stations and if you know of any, which would you recommend. And lastly, what platforms can I use to learn more about manual trading.